114 



SCIENCE. 



[N. 8. Vol. XII. No. 290. 



asses. The idea that they are the remnant of 

 the inner toe is, in my opinion, untenable, 

 chiefly because this toe has been the first to dis- 

 appear in all ungulates. 



Lawrence Irwell. 



Buffalo, N. Y., July 15, 1900. 



TEANSMI8SIBILITY OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS. 



To THE Editor of Science "With refer- 

 ence to the difficulties in the way of such 

 heredity mentioned by Professor Sedgwick in 

 his address printed in your issue of the 6th of 

 this month, would not modifications induced 

 by diet during a whole lifetime have the great- 

 est chance of being transmitted and becoming 

 permanent in the race ? By such experiment 

 would not the reproductive cells be equally 

 afFected with the rest? These modifications 

 could be influential during the whole lifetime, 

 commencing even in the embryonic and ante- 

 natal stages. Thus the influence of ancestral 

 and homochronous heredity would be, as far as 

 possible, obviated. To learn if such a test has 

 ever been attempted, and for any particulars, I 

 should be much obliged. 



C. G. S. 

 23 Up. Bedford Place, London, W. C. 

 June 29, 1900. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 

 report of the chief of the weather 



BUREAU. 



Vol. I. of theannualEeport of theChief of the 

 Weather Bureau has been issued. This volume 

 contains the monthlj"^ and annual summaries for 

 1898, with the customary administrative report. 

 In the latter, special attention is given to the 

 West Indian service of the Weather Bureau. 

 The following points seem worthy of note. In 

 connection with the river and flood service it is 

 stated that " during the next two years, if sufii- 

 cient funds are available for the purpose, it is 

 proposed to prepare a comprehensive work on 

 the entire navigable water regime, giving a 

 complete history of all river stations, elevations 

 above tide-water, rate of flow of water, and 

 data for flood forecasting." The health of the 

 men in the West Indian division is stated to 

 have been remarkably good. " Although al- 

 most all have suffered more or less from trop- 



ical fevers, and the debilitating effects of the 

 climate, yet the continuity of observation has 

 been interrupted by sickness only at Santiago." 



the aurora australis. 



In del et Terre for May 16th, Arctowski pub- 

 lishes a short paper on his observations of the 

 aurora australis made during the recent trip of 

 the Belgica. There were in all 62 observa- 

 tions. The phenomenon generally appeared 

 between 7 p. m. and 2 a. m., the maximum in- 

 tensity coming most frequently between 9 and 

 10 p. m. The maximum frequency did not 

 come during the months of polar night, and the 

 intensity was manifestly greatest at the equi- 

 noxes. Arctowski finds a striking similarity in 

 the appearance of the aurora borealis as ob- 

 served by Nordenskiold on the Vega in 1878- 

 79, and described by him, and the aurora au- 

 stralis as observed on the Belgica expedition. 

 E. Dec. Ward. 



Harvard University. 



NOTES ON OCEANOGRAPHY. 

 THE DANISH ' INGOLF ' EXPEDITION. 



Since the publication of Mohn's great work 

 on the results of the Norwegian Atlantic Expe- 

 dition, the most important contribution to our 

 knowledge of hydrographic conditions in the 

 North Atlantic has doubtless been Knudsen's 

 recent memoir (The Danish Ingolf Expedition, 

 Vol. I., Part 1, Copenhagen, 1899). Knudsen 

 has made a substantial improvement on the 

 Negretti-Zambra deep-sea thermometer. While 

 salinity determinations are of first importance 

 in establishing the relations between the waters 

 of the Gulf Stream Drift and Arctic cur- 

 rents, it is interesting to note that he did not 

 use the hydrometer except as a check, but re- 

 lied exclusively on the use of the chlorine co- 

 efficient, calculating the total salts from the 

 amount of chlorine found in each water-sample 

 by titration. He agrees with Pettersson that 

 this convenient method gives the most accurate 

 results. The gas analyses are especially nu- 

 merous and valuable. The content of nitrogen 

 has been used, in connection with temperature, 

 to distinguish polar and Gulf stream water ; 

 the degree of ' supersaturation ' of the surface- 

 water with oxygen has been found to be in pro- 



